I find it quite amazing that much of the advice given to people looking to start a new business (or blog for that matter) with the intention of making money is to look for niches where there is no competition. I think that this may be the worst thing in the world to do because if there is no competition how do you measure your success?
Although the 9rules Network has a different model from both Gawker and WIN we still had to look at them as competition for a couple of reasons.
- It allowed us to measure our own success. If our Network couldn’t enter the same discussions as those two then where did that leave us? There are more than enough blog networks out there, but if we couldn’t stand out in the crowd what good does that do to the blogs within our Network?
- Learn from their mistakes and profit from the successes. If you don’t consider someone as competition then you will ignore the mistakes they have made and could quite possibly make the same ones yourself.
- Competition keeps you focused and motivated. Pick a site that’s in your niche or close to it and compare the quantity, quality and frequency of your entries to see how you stack up. Look at how they market themselves then you should be able to answer why they are more popular than you. If you are #1 in your niche, look for other sites that are starting to get mentions and links. Competition can be friendly, but you also must stay ahead of the pack.
Embrace your competition as it can only help you in the long run.